meeting and work today

so I had the meeting with my tutor today. found out she was going to be my examiner as well, should hopefully make things easier in the end, as it will be enough for just one person to read the whole report, instead of both tutor and examiner...

the meeting itself was quite short, and quite good... she had some good suggestions on a few changes on my report, which should be fairly quick to make, and then we talked a bit about method and so... how I'll do the evaluation, etc... gotta think it through so it's not just haphazardly done, but with an actual thought behind it. there should be a few articles about evaluating here and there, think I found one about remote evaluation, and of course the projects I wrote about in the report. should be good.

and then spent all of today on working on the statistics database... now I think it's all done with the filtering as well, that took a load of energy, but it should be done now. I just hope it works well.

tomorrow I'll start looking at study circles.

statistics progress

I've managed to copy the whole excel sheet into the database... problem is that it's probably not 100% updated, but that's the least of my problems :)
sorting took me two hours to fix, but at least it's working now... soon it's time to get everyone to sign up... still gotta figure out how I wanna do the cluster assignment filtering, because the coordinators are not supposed to see anything other than their own cluster. it is sort of working right now, problem is if we have coordinators responsible for more than one cluster... dunno how to fix that... yet ;-)

sleep!

tracking done

think I've set up the tracking system and that it's now too... am tracking:

• name
• IP
• time
• page
• query
• data

of course, I will inform the coordinators that I am tracking this. but this is mainly to see where things go wrong and such...

forum done!

figured my most important task was to fix the forums first... why? well, a few of the articles on projects that I read said that e-mail lists didn't really work all that well for suggestions and bugs and so, so I figured a forum is probably better. I need to be active there though (also in one of the articles)...

done!

title: over-coming distance in user-centered design

the background is now 26 pages... LOL
mailed it :)

it is also available through the link on the right hand side.

solved?

think I solved the problem... found a couple of projects who had done distributed design, and will probably be writing about them. might start with a section on general troubles in distant groups and then go on to it.

now it's off to actually writing about it all...

literature problem!

the more I look around, the more I understand that this project is quite unique. not that no one has ever done participatory design, or that there haven't been any distant collaboration design projects, or projects scarce with resources. there have been many of them.

the problem is that the combination that I have, is virtually impossible to find anywhere else. even remotely close to it. I was hoping to be able to finish my background report today, trying to write something about distant groups and their collaboration problems and such, but I just can't find any literature that accurately fits into my problem. much of the distance-relevant stuff builds on the problem of trust and personal gain (such as the prisoner's dilemma or similar), but that is simply not an issue here, as everyone wants the best of the project and contribute what they can.

there have been distributed participatory design projects, but they've had access to video cameras and the participants have had some sort of gain of participating, either monetary reward or simply it being part of their work. in my project, my group members are doing this in their spare time. I'll see what I can dig up, but I want to be able to write at least 3-4 pages about this, because it is quite a big and unique issue in my project... of course, I'll have to expand and elaborate on what I've done myself in the actual method part, but it doesn't hurt to have some background on what others have done... we'll see.

forum

login and forum fixed and working... doesn't look all that pretty yet though...

wrote a page on the report, one major (distant groups) and two minor (PD today and methods) parts left. finished by thursday perhaps?

security

been sitting and working with the login and security of the page... can't have it open for everyone as there will be information about people and stuff there... and I feel I have to get this to work first, so I know how the rest will be implemented.

it's not working 100% yet, but I hope to be there soon... tomorrow I'll be writing on my report though.

requirements specification

to get a bit more clearer view on what exactly the requirements of the system are/were, I decided to meet up with a friend, my personal consultant :), and specify them a bit more clearer, independently of what I had reached with the coordinators. this way they could both complement each other, and I'd be sure that I hadn't missed anything.
the meeting went very well, and together we managed to specify quite many new things that I and the coordinators hadn't thought of. we also were able to write them down on big sheets of plastic, and these I've put on the back of my door to always keep in mind of what I'm aiming for. here are the pictures:

first the two things we drew up, the first one represents the system and its different functions, whereas the other specifies what a studycircle and a person in the system should include:

lastly, this is how it now looks like, on the backside of my door. I've also added the Post-its from the workshop with the coordinators:

meeting booked

just booked a meeting with my tutor, 31st of january... gotta have my background written 'til then, so it gives me a little bit more time... will try and get it done within a day or two though; don't want it lying around for too long.

note to self

here are some notes to myself of what the coordinators have to report (which means the system should be able to automatically generate this):

• current study circles (book, tutor, name of participants, and any non-Bahá'ís)
• finished study circles the past 3 months (same information as above)
• planned/need for study circles

specification

just mailed my specification to my tutor, and tried to set up a meeting for next week. told her I'd finish up my background report over the weekend... hope that'll be ok.

whiteboard

I definitely need a whiteboard, the sooner the better.

slow day...

nothing much happened today... did some reading, printed an article that supposedly claims that participatory design is very important cscw (computer-supported cooperative work) which could give even more credibility for my project... so why not? :)

change of heart

decided rapid cd isn't interesting, as I won't have anything to do with it during my project... though it is an interesting method in itself, to be able to quickly produce results from user-centered projects and has some interesting and usable points... maybe for later in some other project or so...

today's progress

a bit more than three pages written about contextual design (it's up and readable). will probably try to write another page about the rapid contextual design tonight before heading to bed... hope to get another half a page or so done. that should be enough for the day.

still undecided about what to do with the other sections and if I will be able to finish it all before friday... might try to finish my specification (which should've been done a month ago) with all the articles and stuff that I will have and send it in to get it signed and all. and then write during the weekend as well (or at least on sunday) and then send it in for a meeting some time during next week. I'm afraid that this background will go up to about 20 pages... I think that's a bit too much...

and I'll probably try to keep 3 as the distant groups, and then add the methods either as 2.5 or 4. we'll see.

tomorrow I'm gonna read a few more articles, refreshen my memory on participatory design and figure out exactly what I wanna write. or I'll read something on the keynotes...

mail to coordinators

sent a mail to the coordinators telling them about my plans and when I'd need them... figured it'd be a good idea to keep them updated and also let them know what to expect and when I'd need them...

first section done!

three pages about the ISO standard 13407... was more than I thought it would be...
currently these are the sections I will have in my background:

2. Background – user-centered design
2.1. ISO standard 13407
2.1.1. Understanding and specifying the context of use
2.1.2. Specifying the user and organizational requirements
2.1.3. Producing design solutions
2.1.4. Evaluating designs against requirements
2.2. Participatory design/Scandinavian model
2.3. Contextual design
2.4. Key notes for user-centered design
3. Background – distant groups

I think this will be long enough... the report is available to read, here (can also be found from the link on the right). hope to finish it by friday... am a bit worried about the distant groups and what to write there... might even skip it if I deem the rest to be enough.

edit: depending on what I write in sections 2.2-2.4, I might change 3 into a general thing about methods of user-centered design, which has a bit more practical info on how to go about. this would naturally include methods such as the focus group and my design workshop... otherwise I might have to have another section about that...

writing day

today is writing day... hope to finish at least one or two sections of my background.

names!

I have to come up with a title for my report... the swedish one naturally doesn't work :)

and for the system, I decided to simply call it "The Coordinator" - sounds cool, huh? :)

a bit written

got a little bit written, so I am actually ahead of schedule... but was hoping to get more done. will probably put a working document link up just so others can see my progress... sort of forces me to also write more :)

but not today... sleep's calling!

design

from dictionary.com:

“To create or execute in an artistic or highly skilled manner.”

I like it.

whiteboard?

getting the feeling that I might need to get myself some sort of whiteboard... just to have a place to put all things relevant to this project, instead of trying to have loads of papers and post-its lying around on my desk... hmmm...

good design

what is good design? 2005 was the design year in sweden and apparently in norway too, so they had a small exhibition about some award-winning designs at the airport. here's an interesting paragraph which I found there on my way back home...

“Good design improves our everyday lives, by simplifying communication and creating products and solutions that are developed with our needs and wants in mind. Good design improves our everyday lives and creates clarity from clutter.
Good design solves problems, contributes to the effective use of resources, creates more functional solutions, unique experiences, and more effective communication.”

will probably use this somewhere in the introduction of my report, which I've started writing a little bit on today... nothing much, just trying to make an outline and bring up some of the points that I would like to have.

workshop pictures

here are the pictures from the workshop:

choices, choices...

so I have some choices to make... and quite big and important ones. here they are:

• english/swedish: my tutor said that I could write in whatever language I feel comfortable with, so it's up to me. here's the link to my original thoughts about it... can't decide, but it's leaning towards english right now actually...
• mysql/access database... there's a big problem for me... I'm used to access databases and can use it running locally on my computer, and can easily import the excel data that we're using right now into it. in a completely unrelated event, I created a forum a while ago (something they asked for in the workshop), which is using an access database, and that means I won't have to redo that one. however, the bahai.se-site uses mysql, and since the whole system will eventually be transferred there it's probably what I'll have to implement it in sooner or later... question is if I should do it already now or maybe wait and do it later? not sure how difficult it is to learn how to use mysql, but it's another extra thingie, beyond the other things I already have to learn...

oh, happy *week!*

just found out that I had actually planned this week as a vacation! thought it was already over... lucky me!

will probably do some work this week anyways though... better to be ahead than behind :)

design workshop

had a workshop yesterday... took about an hour, unfortunately only three of the coordinators were there, but I'd say it was quite good anyway. split it up into three parts:

• positive/negative things about the excel sheets, and how to fix the negative ones
• scenarios of use and some functions
• actual design of the system

got quite many pointers on how they want it to look like and what it should do, so it seems I will have a lot of work to do :)

next week will be spent on writing the background, and then I'll have a few iterative phases of design and implementation... gonna be interesting! and fun! and difficult!

post-it bought

just got my post-it stuff...
here's a pic:

wanted to get a couple of different colors, so I could use different ones for different functions during the workshop. 400 of them should be enough I hope... ;-)

and the receipt:

39 kr spent this far on my thesis... let's see how high it will go :)

back

home and all, but not gonna do much work. winter school coming up, and am gonna have a workshop with a couple of the coordinators, those that will be there... gonna try to have some sort of design session, along the lines of what gustav taxén described in his article introducing participatory design in museums, so I gotta read that again and plan what I want to do. probably going to need to buy post-it notes... they feel useful :)

this will happen 6th or 7th I think. other than that, nothing until the 9th, when I get back to seriously working and writing again...